Tuesday, January 16, 2018

January 16, 1892 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that the
Executive Committee of the Interstate Exposition Board of Directors has agreed
to sell its massive buidling on Michigan Avenue to the Art Institute for
$2,100. This guarantees, the paper
reports, “ … the doom of the old structure.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, January 16, 1892] Representatives of the
Art Institute say that a check will be issued immediately and within ten days
demolition of the Interstate Exposition Building will begin. The huge building east of Michigan Avenue
occupied the site of the present Art Institute of Chicago for 20 years and was
designed by Chicago architect W. W. Boyington and provided a place for
exhibitors to display their products. It also served as an Illinois National
Guard Armory, as well as the site of political conventions in 1880 and
1884. It was also the first home of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

January 16, 1925 – At the closing session of a two-day conference of the Great Lakes Harbor Association 300 delegates from 80 cities located on the Great Lakes pass a resolution that requests the United States Secretary of War "to require of the sanitary district of Chicago the installation, within a reasonable length of time, of a modern system of sewage disposal and protested against any legislation that may sanction diversions affecting the water levels of the great lakes.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, January 17, 1925] The resolution reads, “With an astounding disregard for the rights of her neighbors and in defiance of all precepts of law and justice, under the pretext that the sanitary welfare of that city made the dilution system of sewage disposal necessary, Chicago has for twenty years been abstracting the waters of the great lakes in great quantities. This abstraction of water has on the one hand caused the lowering of the levels of the lakes to the injury of commerce thereon, and on the other the raising of the levels of the Illinois river to the injury of the land owners of that region. The sewage which Chicago by virtue of its sanitation system is thus carrying into the Illinois river is polluting the waters of that stream to an alarming degree.” Officials of the sanitary district plan to leave for Washington within two days “to face the interests which would prevent the city from diverting 10,000 cubic feet of water per second from the lake for sanitary purposes.”

January 16, 1945 -- In one of the worst fires to hit Chicago in a quarter-century 14 people are killed and 8 injured in a fire at the General Clark Hotel at 217 North Clark Street. The night manager of the hotel states that 76 people were registered when the fire started just after midnight. It was brought under control three hours later, after three people had jumped into firemen's nets and a dozen others had been rescued by ladders.